MATHEWS, Charles S.,W. Feliciana, the Orleans Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by Mike Miller
**********************************************
Copyright. All rights reserved.
http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm
**********************************************
Louisiana: Comprising Sketches of Parishes, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, Arranged
in Cyclopedic Form (volume 3), pp. 291-292. Edited by Alcée Fortier, Lit.D. Published in 1914,
by Century Historical Association.
Mathews, Charles S., planter, Mathews P. O. or New Orleans, La., was born in West Feliciana
parish, La., May 5, 1852; son of Charles Lewis Mathews, who was born in New Orleans, and
whose father, George Mathews, was a native of Virginia, born near Staunton. He came to
Louisiana under commission of Thomas Jefferson as a judge of the Territorial Court of Orleans.
After the admission of Louisiana to the Union of States, he became a justice of the supreme court.
His father, Gen. George Mathews, of Revolutionary fame, was born near Staunton, Va., and died
at Augusta, Ga., while en route to Washington on official business. He was governor of the State
of Georgia after the Revolutionary war, and also served 2 terms as a representative from Georgia
in the national congress. The Mathews family is of Irish and Welsh origin. Charles Lewis
Mathews, father of the subject of this sketch, was married to Miss Penelope Stewart, a daughter
of T. J. Stewart, of Wilkinson county, Miss., who was a prominent man in the affairs of
Mississippi at that time, having served as a member of the state senate. The Stewart family is of
Scotch ancestry. Mr. and Mrs. Charles Lewis Mathews became the parents of 5 children, who
grew to maturity, three of whom survive at this time, and of whom Charles S. was the second
born. His boyhood days, of course, were passed at the plantation home of the family. In the
course of his education he attended the Virginia military institute, at Lexington, and after leaving
that institution returned home to assist in the management of his father's large estate, known as
the Georgia plantation, and upon which Mathews postoffice is located. This plantation,
embracing about 10,000 acres of land and affording residence and employment to about 1,300
people, has been the home of the Mathews family about 100 years. These fertile acres are
devoted to the growth of sugar cane and the conversion of that product into sugar, of which many
cars are shipped from the Georgia plantation with each recurring year. Charles S. Mathews is
now the owner of this great estate, is also vice-president of the George S. Kausler Insurance Co.,
Ltd., and has various other business connections and associations--a man of large affairs and
extensive operations. It should be stated here that Justice George Mathews, grandfather of the
subject of this sketch, was the first chief justice of the Louisiana supreme court, and a
cotemporary [sic] of Justice Hall of that time. Afterwards his associates were Judges Martin and
Porter. Judge Mathews was born in Augusta county, Ga., Sept. 21, 1774, and died at his home in
West Feliciana parish, La., in 1836.